An unlikely material, cubic boron arsenide, could deliver an extraordinarily high thermal conductivity – on par with the industry standard set by costly diamond – researchers report in the current issue of the journal ...

A phenomenon first observed by an ancient Greek philosopher 2,300 years ago has become the basis for a new device designed to harvest the enormous amounts of energy wasted as heat each year to produce electricity. ...

(Phys.org) —Scientists from IBM Research have successfully discovered a new class of polymer materials that can potentially transform manufacturing and fabrication in the fields of transportation, aerospace, ...

A team of theoretical physicists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Boston College has identified cubic boron arsenide as a material with an extraordinarily high thermal conductivity and the ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- ETH Zurich physicists, in collaboration with colleagues at universities in Switzerland and abroad, have made a breakthrough in the manufacture of monolithic semiconductor structures on silicon. ...

(Phys.org)—Scientists from the University of Bristol's Centre for Quantum Photonics have developed a silicon chip that will pave the way to the mass-manufacture of miniature quantum chips. The announcement ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- With products that range from carpets to kites, you’d think Rice University chemist Bob Hauge was running a department store. What he's really running is a revolution in the world of carbon ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Maryland researchers have created a completely new way to produce high quality semiconductor materials critical for advanced microelectronics and nanotechnology. Published in ...

Imagine charging your phone as you walk, thanks to a paper-thin generator embedded in the sole of your shoe. This futuristic scenario is now a little closer to reality. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence ...

A new breakthrough could push the limits of the miniaturization of electronic components further than previously thought possible. A team at the Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes (LAAS) ...

(Phys.org) —A team of European researchers working at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has created an artificial compound eye that is comparable to those in insects such ...

Microelectronics

Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors. Many components of normal electronic design are available in microelectronic equivalent: transistors, capacitors, inductors, resistors, diodes and of course insulators and conductors can all be found in microelectronic devices. Unique wiring techniques such as wire bonding are also often used in microelectronics because of the unusually small size of the components, leads and pads. This technique requires specialized equipment and is expensive.

Digital integrated circuits (ICs) consist mostly of transistors. Analog circuits commonly contain resistors and capacitors as well. Inductors are used in some high frequency analog circuits, but tend to occupy large chip area if used at low frequencies; gyrators can replace them in many applications.

As techniques improve, the scale of microelectronic components continues to decrease. At smaller scales, the relative impact of intrinsic circuit properties such as interconnections may become more significant. These are called parasitic effects, and the goal of the microelectronics design engineer is to find ways to compensate for or to minimize these effects, while always delivering smaller, faster, and cheaper devices.